Enthralled with birds as a young boy, Tim Dee finds that their allure has informed how he perceives time as well as how he sees the world and his place in it. This poetic memoir is a month-by-month account of following these magnificent creatures, on land, at sea, and in the air, over the course of one "dew-dipped year." It draws on memories of 40 years of observing birds, as Dee explores the ideas and feelings that birds awaken in their flying, breeding, and dying. The book also reflects the literary tradition about birds—from Aristotle to Wordsworth, Dante to Pound, Thomas Hardy to Ted Hughes—and naturalists' writings.

"In one particularly poignant passage, Dee takes to the skies in a glider to soar with buzzards in a shared chimney of air. Page after lyrical page, this account articulates the author's fascination with the world's birds with airy, artful grace."—Publishers Weekly